Wussy CEOs hide on their own Web sites

Josh and I just spent the better part of two days finding e-mail contacts for the products that were nominated for the Webware 100 awards. Many nominations came from people not affiliated with the companies that made these products. Fans, in other words.

To these fans, I say, thanks for taking the time to nominate the products you like. But to nearly all companies that have the fans, I blow loud and wet raspberries in your general direction. Do you have any idea how freaking hard it was to find contact information for you?

In far too many cases, there was no e-mail address on company Web sites. Several companies did offer e-mail forms, which is a half-measure. But what's so bad about listing an e-mail address for a CEO? Spam stopped being a problem about two years ago. And, Mr. or Ms. CEO, if you can't figure out how to use one of the good off-the-shelf antispam products out there, at least make sure one of your PR lackeys has their e-mail address (a real address, not an "[e-mail]" cop-out) posted on the site. You're paying them to be in touch, right?

Of the companies that I checked, only one (Fotki) actually had a linked e-mail for the CEO on the site. A few others--I could count them on my fingers--had e-mails, but unlinked, in the old-school antispam way: "My e-mail is Joe-the-CEO at companyname dot com."

Dear people who want to strike it rich on the Internets: get a clue. Business is personal. And if you actually want to do some business, maybe you should make it just a little bit easier for your customers (and journalists) to communicate with you.

Yours sincerely,
- [e-mail]

P.S.: I know Webware's "about" page doesn't have e-mails listed on it. That will change.

Voting on the Webware 100 will start at noon Pacific Time on Wednesday, May 23.

[jeffreymcmanus]

why are email forms a "half measure"

if they eventually get you connected with the person you're trying to talk to? In a world in which email is totally broken, forms are a totally valid anti-spam tactic. They're also a useful indirection tactic -- sometimes you want to decouple a specific person's role (i.e., the person who deals with media inquiries -- usually not the CEO) from a specific email address. That way the form still works if the person leaves the company and their email address goes away.

A CEO's job is to run the company, not to deal with random inquiries (and clean out hundreds of pieces of spam from their inbox) every day.

[njconcierge]

Are they playing hard to get!

You make a point.
When I had issues (not of their making) signing up for Backpack (37 Signals, I gave them a call and who picked up the phone, Jason Fried.
So if Jason can do it so should they.

Serge
Blog:
http://www.sergetheconcierge.com

[rafe]

@ jeffreymcmanus: forms are blind

Email forms can work, but too many don't. For example, many of the sites that I tried have forms with drop-down lists for the subject line -- and none of selections is close to what I want to say. I know how customer service works: Chances are that entry is going to be ignored.

I'm not saying that sites shouldn't have forms and generic dropboxes. I'm just saying that if a potential customer or partner wants to talk to a PERSON at a company, the company should provide the option.

Too-busy CEOs can create aliases for the email address they post on the Web (does [e-mail] go directly to Gates?) and have a CSR or bot read it first.

[mypunchbowl]

MyPunchbowl's cell phone number

Rafe,

Here's my take on it. We provide [e-mail] as our email address so that more than one of us can see it if I'm traveling or otherwise going to be very busy (it's simple for us to redirect that account).

However, we take it one step further-- my cell phone number is on our site. It's a thrill for me to get calls from real users with real feedback. And it helps make MyPunchbowl.com better every day.

Here's the link to my cell number: Bottom of the page, under "Customer Support."

http://corp.mypunchbowl.com/faq.php

Matt, Founder MyPunchbowl.com
http://www.mypunchbowl.com

[SFGary]

Agree, its frustrating

Besides the question of why a company founder or leader needs to be anonymous, why not a [e-mail] as a minimum? That might work if he/she responds promptly.

[fourlittlebees]

Forget Email...

What about a NAME? Sometimes you can't even find out who's running the company if you are trying to find someone to talk to about the product. Sure, a CEO's job is "running the company" but part of that is letting people know someone is actually there steering the ship.

[brianmulloy]

Good Call, No More Hiding

Your rant is a good one. In fact, we changed the contact page at Swivel so that folks who want to contact the founders have our phone numbers and email addresses: http://swivel.com/about/contact.

Regards,
Brian (no longer a wussy) Mulloy
Cofounder & CEO
www.swivel.com

[fire1fl]

And it's not just the CEO's,

there's Needleman for example - whose picture and links do not lead to his email, but rather to his entire dossier of blogs. And the CEO of CNET's contacts/links - where are they?

[goodolejim]

Just as bad is lack of contact info for sales

I just contacted several companies about using their product with linux. D-link and Linksys never bothered to answer so I bought from a company that did answer. Belkin said there product would NOT work however several of my friends are using the Belkin card with good success so I bought it because at least Belkin did answer me.

Goodolejim

[bb7250]

Security and Social Engineering

I will not allow the company to post executive names and email addresses on our website. This cuts down on spam in their mailboxes and makes it harder to get names and email addresses unless they are doing business with the company. We do have email forms where customers can send messages to the company while keeping the employee names private.

[Els v. B.]

nothing wrong with [e-mail] address

> (a real address, not an "[e-mail]" cop-out)

What is wrong with an info@ address, if it's where email gets read? I also don't see why CEOs' addresses should be listed on the site - does any snail mail letter end up on a CEO's desk without passing through the mail room and the secretary first?